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While the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt across the country, the online fashion segment in India continues to grow — both in volume and value terms.

In a study titled Fashion E-commerce Report, ecommerce focused supply-chain SaaS technology platform Unicommerce revealed that the online fashion industry continues to grow upwards with order volume growth of 51 percent and GMV (Gross Merchant Value) growth of 45 percent in FY21, compared to the previous financial year.

The report analyses fashion trends for the period of FY 2021 and FY 2020 with a sample size of over 70 million orders.

Commenting on the report, Kapil Makhija, CEO of Unicommerce said, “Fashion segment is one of the biggest contributors to the ecommerce industry of India with the highest order volume. This report sheds light on the changing consumer buying patterns and preferences, rising adoption of D2C and omnichannel and new segments in the online fashion space.”

The report added that websites are driving fashion growth and the rising adoption of D2C amongst fashion brands have helped them build a strong connect with consumers leading to higher growth.

Unicommerce said the brand websites have reported 66 percent order volume growth and 77 percent GMV growth in FY 2021 as compared to the previous financial year. Compared to websites, marketplaces have reported 45 percent order volume growth and 33 percent GMV growth for FY-2021.

The report said this strongly reinforces that fashion brands are investing aggressively to build a stronger D2C presence.

The heartening aspect has been the growth from Tier-II and beyond locations. The Unicommerce report said that Tier-II locations registered 118 percent volume growth and Tier-III and beyond destinations registered 192 percent volume growth.

This is likely because the fashion industry has always been the early adopter of technology, which has helped it stay ahead of the curve.

This has led to omnichannel gaining momentum. The report states that companies are now fulfilling 20-25 percent of their omnichannel orders from the store, indicating increased adoption of omnichannel across the majority of brand stores.

Women wear holds the majority share of the ecommerce fashion market with a 50 percent market share in FY 2021 and reported 30 percent order volume growth in FY 2021 as compared to the previous financial year.

On the other hand, the kids wear segment took the industry by surprise with over 200 percent order volume growth and the market share significantly increased from 3 percent in FY 2020 to 17 percent in FY 2021. The menswear segment maintained consistent growth with 37 percent order volume growth and 33 percent market share in FY-2021.